A CrossFit executive was fired on Wednesday after calling LGBTQ pride a "sin."

Prior to being terminated, he was placed on unpaid leave for a string of homophobic tweets.

In the now-deleted tweets, CrossFit's Chief Knowledge Officer Russell Berger congratulated CrossFit Infiltrate, a CrossFit gym in Indianapolis, for canceling their Pride-themed workout. Pride events, including parades and community gatherings, are hosted across the country in June.

In an email to its members, the gym's owners said they shut down the event because they "value health and wellness, and they believe that this event does not.” According to Fox 59, a follow-up email from the gym to a member asking for clarification said:

We believe that true health forever can only be found within humility, not pride. Humility is seeing oneself as they truly are, and as God truly defines them to be. As a business we will choose to deploy our resources towards those efforts and causes that line up with our own values and beliefs.

Berger tweeted his support for the gym's owners.

"As someone who personally believes celebrating "pride" is a sin, I'd like to personally encourage #CrossFitInflitrate for standing by their convictions and refusing to host an @indypride workout."

Then, as if he needed to make it more homophobic, he said he believes Pride events are a "celebration of sin" and then claimed that people calling him out on Twitter were "an existential threat to freedom of expression."

Twitter users also took screenshots of Berger's other tweets, some of which he had deleted. He additionally wrote he didn't speak for CrossFit and ranted about the "attempt to silence" his personal views by "pressuring [his] employer."

Glassman's comments were less reserved off Twitter. According to BuzzFeed, Glassman said Berger "needs to take a big dose of 'shut the fuck up' and hide out for a while. It's sad."

He continued:

“We do so much good work with such pure hearts — to have some zealot in his off-time do something this stupid, we’re all upset. The whole company is upset. This changes his standing with us. What that looks like, I don’t know. It’s so unfortunate.”

CrossFit tweeted that Berger has been placed on unpaid leave while "management completes a thorough review."

Effective immediately, Russell Berger has been placed on unpaid leave while management completes a thorough review.

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